Selling a luxury home? 4 qualities to look for in a real estate agent

Max Sandoval

Selling a luxury home? 4 qualities to look for in a real estate agent

Selling a luxury home is unlike any other real estate transaction. The marketing is different, the potential buyers are different and the entire sales process is as well.

We hear from our luxury home clients that they found locating the right real estate agent to handle the sale the most challenging part of the process.

So, we came up with four qualities you should look for when choosing an agent to assist you in the sale of your luxury home.

Experience

Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus nailed it when he said that “You cannot create experience, you must undergo it.”

Agents experienced in the luxury home market are the only ones who understand the nuances of this market

Everyone else guesses and sadly, often miss the mark. That’s something no homeowner can afford.

When shopping for an agent, whether you plan on buying, selling or doing both, look for one that has experience with luxury homes and with high-end clients.

Marketing expertise

Cookie-cutter marketing plans don’t work with expensive real estate. While online advertising is critical to a marketing campaign, luxury home marketing sometimes requires more extensive and focused marketing.

Beautiful, full-color brochures and placing ads in certain magazines where they’ll be seen by the affluent are sometimes called for.

When selling an expensive home, look for an agent that uses all of the marketing tools at her disposal.

Marketing budget

Regardless of experience, if the agent you’re interviewing runs his business on a shoestring, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll be able to afford the extensive and expensive marketing strategies required to sell a luxury home.

Remember, attracting the affluent buyer requires more than a listing in the MLS

It may require buying advertising in high-end publications. One Silicon Valley expert we know frequently advertises in Elite Traveler, a magazine for those who own private jets.

Ad rates vary, but start at $5,000

Other luxury agents prefer a broader audience, such as that of the Robb Report. Here, ads cost from nearly $14,000 (for 1/3 page) and more than $39,000 for a full-page ad.

Don’t be afraid to ask not only how the agent will advertise your home, but how he or she will pay for that as well.

Local experience

Another challenging aspect of listing a luxury home is setting the appropriate price. Since prices are based on the sales price of homes in the same general area, it’s vital that your agent is familiar with the market.

A good luxury home listing agent not only knows what has sold recently, but has seen the interiors of the homes personally. She is also familiar with homes currently on the market.

This familiarity is the agent’s best tool when determining a list price for your home

Don’t trust the sale of your luxury home to any agent that can’t provide details of his or her experience, marketing know-how, budget and local market familiarity.